Wiktionary:Etymology scriptorium/2010/May

Is there a reason why prestige and prestidigitator/prestidigitation have different etymologies? It would seem that they come from the same root (since prestige once had the meaning "delusion, illusion, trick", according to its entry), but I might be wrong. Please enlighten me :) --Waldir 06:45, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

• They don't come from the same root at all; the resemblance is coincidence. The root of (deprecated template usage) prestige is Latin (deprecated template usage) praestringere, which was used in the sense of ‘to blindfold; to dazzle or confuse someone’. The prest- in (deprecated template usage) prestidigitation goes back to Latin (deprecated template usage) praestō, in Romance languages indicating speed (compare (deprecated template usage) presto). The two words probably ultimately share a use of the Latin prefix (deprecated template usage) prae-, but that's about it. Ƿidsiþ 06:56, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the clarification. Would you please add this information to the entries? Namely the "to blind" sense of 'praestringere' isn't mentioned. And maybe a note mentioning the similarity but unrelatedness of the words... --Waldir 07:15, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

Could a speaker of Arabic check and transcribe the word "safīn" in the etymology of saphenous? Divinenephron 09:54, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Can someone who knows Japanese please check this etymology? Cheers. ---> Tooironic 23:26, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pink has the flower (and several other meanings) under a different etyomology from the colour, whereas we have them under the same. I don't know myself which is right, but I'd be more inclined to believe M-W.

• Actually, MW doesn't seem to give any etymology for the colour sense so it's not clear whether they think it's distinct or not. But the OED and two dictionaries of etymology in front of me all say it's the same word, and the colour is originally used in the sense of "the colour associated with the flower". Ƿidsiþ 05:35, 29 May 2010 (UTC)

In Appendix:List of Proto-Indo-European roots/h₂ it says that Old Norse fiskr is derived from Appendix:Proto-Indo-European/h₂ep-. In Appendix:List of Proto-Indo-European nouns it is said to derive from Proto-Indo-European *peisk-. Are they related or is one of them wrong? The etymology should be the same for Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, and in accordance with etymology 1 on fish, and Old High German fisk.--Leo Laursen – (talk · contribs) 14:11, 29 May 2010 (UTC)